The Soul Cut #02
by Etienne Delbiaggio | September 17th, 2025
Humanizing Editing
One of the first devices that editing developed in order to tell a story to the audience was the invention of the cut and the subsequent juxtaposition of one image with the one before—or after—it.
An anecdote often used to explain one of the possible origins of the cut involves Georges Méliès (1861–1938). After shooting some exterior scenes, during the film’s development Méliès realized that at some point the camera must have jammed, accidentally splicing together two different images: a carriage and a hearse.
Whether or not this incident actually happened is uncertain, but what is interesting is that cutting and joining images together does not seem to have emerged naturally.
Equally fascinating is the experiment carried out by Argentine filmmaker Gaspar Noé in his film Enter the Void, where the viewer finds themselves in first person inside the protagonist’s head, following the story through his eyes. The plot depicts the final moments in the life of Oscar, a young man living with his sister Linda in Tokyo. A small-time drug dealer, he is killed during a police raid, and the rest of the film unfolds entirely from his point of view as a spirit drifting through space and time.
What makes this work particularly unique is the meticulous attention to detail in creating a genuine sense of immersion in the character, especially in the first part of the film, when Oscar is still alive. Through his perspective, in addition to camera movements that replicate the “real” motions of the body and the drug-induced hallucinations, there is a frequent use of blinks.
After the protagonist’s death and his transformation into a spirit, the film continues as a seamless subjective experience, a series of simulated long takes punctuated by flashbacks from the past and occasional scene changes.
(Above: Portrait of Georges Méliès, 1861–1938)
But what makes cuts feel natural to the human eye?
To answer this question, it is best to turn to Walter Murch: legendary film editor and sound designer of classics such as Apocalypse Now, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and The English Patient, winner of three Academy Awards and author of the book In the Blink of an Eye. In this book, he argues that the answer lies in two everyday activities: when we dream and when we blink. He theorizes that the human eye seems to have evolved precisely to reject editing. Consequently, the films of the Lumière brothers or Aleksandr Sokurov’s Russian Ark should be seen as the closest approximations to human visual perception. Dreams are rarely linear and are always tied to a single subjectivity, just like our waking state, while blinking became a concept Murch elaborated during the editing of Coppola’s The Conversation (1974).
(Above: Example from Enter the Void)
This idea later found confirmation in an interview with director John Huston (1906–1987), published in the Christian Science Monitor:
“Cinema is like thought. Of all the arts, it comes closest to it. Look at that lamp across the room. Now look back at me. Look at the lamp. Now back at me. Did you see what you just did? You blinked. Those are cuts. After the first glance, you knew there was no need for a continuous pan from me to the lamp, because you already knew what was in between. Your mind cuts the scene.”
“Something to consider, though, is the possibility that there may be a part of our waking reality where we actually do experience something like cuts, and where daylight images are somehow brought in closer, more discontinuous, juxtaposition than might otherwise seem to be the case.
I began to get a glimmer of this on my first picture-editing job—The Conversation (1974)—when I kept finding that Gene Hackman (Harry Caul in the film) would blink very close to the point where I had decided to cut. It was interesting, but I didn’t know what to make of it.”
(Above: Walter Murch)
CREDITS:
Photo of Georges Méliès by Kino Lorber.
Photo of Walter Murch – Walter Murch working on Tetro in Buenos Aires (Beatrice Murch via Wikipedia).
Frames from Enter the Void, by Gaspar Noé, Fidélité Films, Wild Bunch, and BUF (BUF Compagnie). Other co-producers and associates included Essential Filmproduktion, Les Cinémas de la Zone, Paranoid Films, and BIM Distribuzione.
Quotations excerpted from In the Blink of an Eye, by Walter Murch, published by Silman-James Press.
The brain accepts this grammar because it does not perceive it as foreign; it is already capable of reproducing it through the eyes and the movement of the eyelids. This is why we are able to accept cuts and transitions in films—even those that do not aim to faithfully mirror reality.
My name is Etienne Del Biaggio. I am a film editor, self-taught animator, and composer of original soundtracks based in Giubiasco (Ticino, Switzerland). After graduating in editing and video post-production from CISA in Locarno (2019), I collaborated with Béla Tarr on Alma by Dino Longo Sabanovic, presented at the Locarno Film Festival. From 2022 to 2023, I worked as lead editor at Fiumi Studios, producing documentaries and corporate videos for clients such as Siemens and EOC Ticino.
Alongside editing and music, I have developed skills in graphic design and animation, creating several animated short films. Beyond these passions, I also enjoy sharing my personal reflections on film editing through my blog The Soul Cut, with the hope of inspiring others to explore the subject.